Rodhull Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Probably the most entertaining wrestling related thing I've seen in a long time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb_diamond Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 You can actually feel AEWs momentum stalling a bit at the moment. Jericho all over the place stinking up everything he touches. Punk still injured. Plus a re-run of the beyond boring Bucks/Page guff no doubt on every dynamite for the foreseeable. Coupled with what could be a resurgence of wrestling oriented WWE product it could be an interesting couple of months. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludo*1 Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Yeah, this feels like Tony Khan's first real pressure point. With Rampage doing terribly, accusations of him not communicating with talent (which has led to a major revamp backstage), a horrific injury list, WWE demanding viewers at the moment and a whole host of his original 'stars' now stinking up the place like Jericho means Khan has a tricky path to navigate over the next little while. Once the injuries clear up, everything else should fall into place but this is probably the first time he's been on the back foot a little. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 It will be a big test for them going forward. They could always fall back on the fact that WWE was usually hopeless, but if they turn that around, it could lead to people starting to drift away from the product. At the same time though, I don't think the concept of a "war" for ratings really exists anymore. It's never been easier to be a fan of more than one thing, so even if AEWs quality stalls or goes down, I'm not sure it would ever be enough to see people abandon it (not many abandoned WWE when they were much worse). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Battle of the Belts and Quake by the Lake clears the decks ahead of All Out. Creative i'm not too worried. It's entirely subjective. People online hate on Jericho or the Undisputed Elite and yet the ratings don't drop off a cliff when they're in the mix. Moving to TBS they've been pretty consistent in the 900k+ range regardless. Rampage being a Friday 10pm in Summer should be hitting its low point. Curious to see if it recovers. It'll help if they start putting some more stars on again. Overall creatively, the sooner Punk is back the better. The men's World title needs to move on. It should also see MJF return if that's a work. The changes in the background should be beneficial. Although when the news of Jonathan Gresham's "quitting" came out. A breakdown of how creative works came out on Fightful. It just sounds like they've formalised what was in place. As Dutt, Buck, and Marshall were already working as coaches, who would be the ones to pass things on to Tony Khan. Madison Rayne has the potential to be a decent hire. Between her stints in RoH and Impact she'll know a few of the faces and I don't think AEW had an actual women's coach to go to (Dustin/Kenny getting credit. Deeb being more an active in-ring talent). WWE changes I don't think will make much difference short-term. The first batch of people had their 3 year contracts come up recently and those staying will be on multi-year deals. The ex-WWE/NXT/Covid hires will be on multi-year deals as well. The indies are largely being picked clean. It's also on a different night so isn't going to take away any eyeballs unless there's a return to the Wednesday Night Wars. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted August 4, 2022 Author Share Posted August 4, 2022 They always fall into a bit of a lull in the peroid between PPVs, but when it comes to about 3 weeks out and the card begins to take shape/feuds are heading towards conclusions it’s mostly really good. Was assuming Battle of the Belts would provide more of a bridge, but they just don’t feel like big deals. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 11 minutes ago, TheGoon said: They always fall into a bit of a lull in the peroid between PPVs, but when it comes to about 3 weeks out and the card begins to take shape/feuds are heading towards conclusions it’s mostly really good. Was assuming Battle of the Belts would provide more of a bridge, but they just don’t feel like big deals. Original plan when deal was signed was mini-PPVs. When the 1st one came along nearly 2 years later TNT were only giving them an hour and they've fallen into this format. I'm still convinced Battle of the Belts was intended to be a once a year event with different names for the other specials. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb_diamond Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Just saw the card for this Friday's rampage. Not quite sure how that's meant to get eyeballs back on the product for that show. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Jon Moxley in singles action against a random no one will have heard of Swerve & Keith Lee at least continues something that's played out on TV. Madison Rayne debuts 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherrif John Bunnell Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 That's the first time I've ever seen Mance Warner. I thought he was very impressive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFCDannyFTH Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 JR burying Rick Knox every week is fucking tremendous. What a shite referee he is. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherrif John Bunnell Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 That's the main event for All Out looking set in stone then. It'll be weird seeing Moxley being booed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludo*1 Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 7 hours ago, AFCDannyFTH said: JR burying Rick Knox every week is fucking tremendous. What a shite referee he is. People are really triggered about JR for saying that and going on a rant about the interim title. I still think he's the best commentator on the show but the dynamic is all wrong. Not a huge fan of Excalibur but the Twitter crowd seem to love him and Tony Schiavone doesn't add much. Taz is excellent but again, Excalibur seems to think he's the play by play guy and the colour commentator at times so crowds everyone out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 I think they're using JR a lot better than they used to. When he was on for the whole show, it just felt like an old man completely out of time. Now he's coming in for matches here and there it's a lot better as he still has a lot to offer, but last night he seemed to always be there again. He doesn't have it in him to properly lead a broadcast, and often finds himself just adding weird comments under everyone else. The interim title comment seemed out of nowhere and didn't really add much. If you take JR out of that, I quite like the team they've got. There's a relaxed atmosphere to the coverage that WWE could never match (although might be more possible now). Seems like a few guys genuinely enjoying themselves but not in a way that detracts from the product, whereas WWE always seems like they're always reaching for the branding and rehearsed lines. Consistently impressed with AEW's weekly programming now. With FITE it's easy to watch on a Thursday morning, and there's consistently stuff in there you want to see, with at least one "big" match each show. I was skeptical about them just running four big shows a year, but I can completely see their reasoning now. Much better to build towards massive shows if they can keep their weekly shows at that elevated level. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb_diamond Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 Approaching the Muta Scale for big Brody last night 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted August 11, 2022 Author Share Posted August 11, 2022 Thoroughly enjoyed that main event, pleasantly surprised to see Punk too, thought he’d be out a while longer. Punk/Mox, then Punk/Kingston please. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoon Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 Bryan/Garcia 2, holy moly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 I recommend this week's Dynamite. It's mental in many ways. Definitely gave a reason to watch next week. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 18 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said: I recommend this week's Dynamite. It's mental in many ways. Definitely gave a reason to watch next week. I thought they were saving that for the PPV. Odd to give away free on TV. What will the PPV main event be then? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumswall Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 I thought they were saving that for the PPV. Odd to give away free on TV. What will the PPV main event be then?They'll maybe have it go to a draw next week then the rematch at all out 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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